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UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

DAVID J. FARMER, OF PENN YAN, NEW YORK, ASSIGNOR TO IIIMSELF, JOHN P. FARMER, AND SAMUEL FARMER, OF SAME PLACE.

MANUFACTURE oF NAlLs.

SPECIFICATION formingpart of Letters Patent No. 243,69, dated July 5, 1881.

Application filed August 29, 1679.

To all whom it may concern:

Beit known that I, DAVID J. FARMER, of Penn Yan, in the county of Yates, in the State of New York, have invented a new and useful 5 Improvement in the Manufacture of Gut Nails,

of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to the manufacture of cut nails by the use of what are generally known as eut-nail machines,7 where nails are made 1o from the flat plate; and it consists in rolling sheets with a succession of transverse ridges forming inclined planes, cutting them up into nail-plates, converging from side to side in a direction longitudinal to the ber ofthe metal,

I5 cutting up the said plates-(without the usual oscillation or inversion) into nail or tack blanks with the ber lengthwise of the blank, and heading said blanks with customary or suitable cut-nail or tack machinery.

zo In order that my invention maybe fully understood, I will proceed to describe it with reference to the accompanying drawings, in

ing the blanks from the plate by straight parn allel cuts.

In Figs. 1 and 2, A A represent ridges, and B B depressions, in the top of the rolled plate. By my preferred mode of rolling the plate the ridges taper gradually in both directions, as shown in Figs. l and 2, from the lines a a 4o ot' greatest thickness to the lines b b of least thickness; but if preferred the taper may be made in one direction only, as illustrated in Figs. 3 and 4, in which case an abrupt or perpendicular shoulderis formed at each line a c', as represented in Fig. 4. The plates rolled in either Inode are cut up into sections on the lines b b', and in the case of the oppositelytapered plate shown in Figs. l and 2 on the lines a a also. These plate-sections are in- 5b tended to represent in width the length of the nail, with additional length for the upsetting of lthe head, unless otherwise desired.

In my improvement, the'taper desired for the nail being formed in the plate or iron before being fed into the machine, it is obvious that it is only necessary, as before stated, to make a straight cut crosswise from the plate for each blank, or each nail made, so that in feeding the plate to the machine all that is requiredis to move the plate forward ina straight line to 6o the cutters of the machine, which may be done by weight, spring, or otherwise, as found desirable.

In the manufacture of the nails, the nails are cut and headedon the machine in the ordinary manner, cutting and heading the nail at oneoperation or revolution of the machine. I have not described the nail-machines, as they are Well known and understood; and I do not confine my improvement to any precise form 7o of machine, as the forms and mechanisms of nail-machines are numerous and subject to change.

My improvement in cutting nails from the end of a taper plate and making a straight cut crosswise from the plate saves one operation in the machine while making the nail, and will be readily understood to obviate the necessity heretofore of turning over the platekat each eut, or oscillating or changing the plate from 8o one pair of knives to another or its equivalent, to form the taper to the nail.

My improvement does not refer to forged nails or spikes when the nail or spike is formed on the rod of iron point and head, which, when rolled or formed on the rod, is a continuous length of nails or spikes, to be separated one from the other after being made in a bar or continuous length. Neither does my improvement refer to a mode heretofore employed of 9o making forged nails by forming plates in a series ot' tapering sections or ridges, cutting up said plates transversely of the ridges, so as to produce strings of blanks point to head or point to point and head to head, and subsequently severing into separate blanks and nishin g by hand-forgin g or otherwise, this mode having been described in a number of United States patents, some of them of old date. Neither does my improvement refer to the cutroe ting of tapering blanks from bars rolled with a transverse taper from edge to edge, as I am aware that this has before been proposed. It is manifest that with blanks cut from a bar tapered transversely to the direction in which it is rolled the grain or fiber will be transverse to the blank, and hence cut nails can be successfully made by the process last referred to only by the use of homogeneous steel or iron of the highest quality. My mode of rolling plates with transverse ridges and depressions,

cutting these plates up into transversely-tapered bars, and cutting these up into blanks, produces nails with the grain or ber lengthwise, as is necessary with the kind and quality of iron commonly employed for nails.

I am aware that in the manufacture of horseshoe-nails iron has been rolled into plates with ridges on one or both of their outer edges to form the nail-heads, and with the ber of the iron transverse to the plate or lengthwise with the nail; but such plates would not answer the purpose of my invention, and could not be used to form a tapered nail without inverting1 or oscillating the plate at each cut.

I am also aware that plates have been rolled with an even taper transverse to the line of rolling, so that with fibrous iron nails cut from such plates would have the grain crosswise. This, therefore, I do not claim, as it necessitates the use of homogeneous iron and is not adapted for the manufacture of American cut nails from common iron.

Having thus described my invention, the following is What I claim as new therein and desire to secure by Letters Patent:

As an improvement in the art of making cut nails and tacks, the process of rolling plates with transverse ridges and depressions, cutting these up into transversely-tapered nail-plates with the ber produced by previous rolling crosswise to said nail-plates, feeding such nail-plates to the nail-machine without the usual oscillation or alternateinversion, and

heading in customary cut-nail or tack ma- 45 chinery, all substantially as set forth.

DAVID J. FARMER. Witnesses:

S. FARMER, W. H. FARMER. 

